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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  October 1, 2013 11:00am-12:00pm EDT

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with for six months. >> house republicans compromised and compromised and compromised, only to be met by absolute intransigence at the door of the senate. >> dismay and disgust in and outside the halls of congress this morning with no break-through in sight to the government stalemate on capitol hill. roughly an hour and a half from now we'll hear from president obama who will address the nation from the rose garden at the white house. i'm mara schiavocampo in for thomas roberts. harry reid said of republicans last night they have lost their minds. that must be what the american people think of our leaders in washington after the federal government has shut down for the first time in 17 years. at this hour both the senate and the house are in session. the congressional hot potato is back in the house's hands after the senate tabled a request to create a bipartisan committee to hash out an end to the impasse. here's what's impacted by the shutdown. hundreds of thousands furloughed. national parks and monuments
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closed, loans delayed. here's what's not, mail, social security, medicare, the military, homeland security and air travel. there's no way to tell how long the shutdown will last or how it will end, but the blame game is in full effect. >> i think the appropriate thing is what the speaker is advocating. let's go to conference. let's sit down with the democrats and see if they're willing to negotiate on anything at all. >> one note, one demand to eliminate the affordable care act, which i think most reasonable republicans don't think is either a good strategy or is going to happen. >> what we see happening with this republican strategy is a willingness to threatens the very foundation of the world's greatest economic power. >> for now republicans seem to be fielding the bulk of the blame. check out the "new york daily news." house of turds.
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according to a new quinnipiac poll over 70 % oppose the strategy to shut down the government over obama care. the health insurance exchanges opened for business this morning. the president blasted them for using the law as a bargaining chip. >> you don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there's a law there that you don't like. >> for the latest on the shutdown, i'm joined by kansas republican congressman tim huelskamp. congressman, thanks for being here this morning. >> good morning. >> i'd like to start by taking a look by how the decisions you've made are impacting real people today. 800,000 federal workers are being furloughed without pay. home buyers and small businesses looking for federal loans will be out of luck and a critical food assistance program for
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women, infants and children is shut down. a new poll finds that 72% do not support shutting down the government over obama care. so i have to ask you why are you and your colleagues waging this fight? >> well, that's a great question. we've sent three different offers to the senate. what would you like to do? the last option was to delay the individual mandate like the president has unilaterally done for big businesses. harry reid and the president of the united states says we're not going to negotiate at all. in america, particularly in washington, we have to have folks willing to sit down and actually negotiate and decide where we want to head on the budget. that's hopefully what can occur today. hopefully tempers can cool at the white house and the senate and sit down and decide where do we go in this country. >> congressman, there's a lot of misinformation out there about the affordable care act and i want to ask you about some of that. your website says that, quote, the affordable care act has been deemed unconstitutional for its mandates requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. that's actually the opposite of
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the truth. the supreme court upheld the mandate as a tax that does fall within congress' power to lay and collect taxes. so why does your website suggest otherwise? >> it must be an error on my website. i'm unaware of that. it might be confused with this issue we sent over late yesterday which again would have delayed the individual mandate. john roberts said if there's no individual mandate, hence individual tax, it probably wouldn't stand a constitutional challenge. yes, the court has ruled that way. that doesn't mean it's a good law. as of last night at midnight, the health care exchanges are not up and running. they're not working well of the and again delay after delay after delay on the obama care exchanges and again, if the president doesn't think it's good enough for big businesses, all the republicans are asking is let the small guy get a break for a year as well. >> i want to talk about the attempts to resolve this current crisis. at the 11th hour yesterday house republicans suggested going to conference. now, this is something democrats in the senate have been seeking for months. why is that the right thing to
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do now after a government shutdown? >> well, actually your statement is untrue. the democrats have not been willing to go to conference. actually it's been four years. i've only been up here two and a half years, but it's been four years since the u.s. senate actually passed a single appropriations bill. before that time you'd go to conference between the house and senate and the president would have their input. but harry reid has not been able to pass a single appropriations bill through the u.s. senate for four years and that's what we asked last night. let's sit down in a conference, a bipartisan committee between the house and senate and say, hey, where do we go from here. the president has delayed multiple parts of this bill. we're asking him to delay the individual mandate as well. that's normally how things operate in washington. i know the president is not used to doing that. but he's not always going to get his way and neater will harry reid. >> harry reid has said he's been seeking to go to conference -- >> not on a single appropriations bill. he's talking about the budget which outlines the overall spending but specifically on
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appropriations, which is the issue here, harry reid hasn't passed a bill in four years. do your work, senate, and let's get this figured out. >> tim huelskamp, thanks for your time, sir. earlier monday the president phoned top leaders including harry reid, mitch mcconnell, nancy pelosi and john boehner. last night on the house floor boehner did an impression of how it went. >> i didn't come here to shut down the government. how do we give a break to all the big businesses out there and yet stick our constituents with a bill that they don't want and a bill they can't afford? that's what this fight's all about. i talked to the president earlier tonight. i'm not going to negotiate. i'm not going to negotiate. i'm not going to do this. well, i would say to the president, this is not about me and it's not about republicans here in congress. it's about fairness for the american people.
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>> joining me now is democratic congressman from new york charles rangel. he sits on the house ways an means committee. sir, good morning. thanks for being here. >> good morning. >> now, congressman, while this showdown has been going on in washington, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle has been raising money on the shutdown. i understand that we have a technical difficulty with the congressman. i don't think we can hear him at this time. congressman, we're going to come back to you. we'll go to another guest first. ezra klein is joining me now, "washington post" columnist and msnbc policy analyst to talk about more on the possible repercussions of this shutdown. ezra, in 1995 and 1996, the shutdown was credited with giving bill clinton a big political advantage. what do you think the effect is going to have this time around? >> i think it's going to give the democrats a big political advantage. one thing to remember about '95, '96, which in some ways is more applicable to 2011, that was after republicans had won an incredible midterm election. that was the first time in 40
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years the house republicans had taken over that chamber. so the republican party had real momentum coming out of that election. they had a real mandate. they had a real unity behind speaker newt gingrich at the time. so there was a much more assertive argument for why they would be able to hold firm against the president's demands. by the way, they also held the senate. at this point you have i believe the polling this morning showed 72-22 or 78-22. >> 72-22. >> against shutting down the government in order to stop obama care. that's a terrible poll number. the affordable care act is not a popular piece of legislation. republicans have managed to pick a strategy that puts them on the wrong side of the popularity here. the other problem for them and this is a big deal in how the media covers it, they walk into this very divided. a lot of republicans are very unhappy about the shutdown. the leadership has been trying to weeks to keep it from happening. to come into this with the party itself not believing it's the right strategy is a very dangerous thing for them.
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>> you cite those poll numbers which are extremely lopsided. do you think over time if this continues to drag on that the blame will then get shifted a little more evenly between both parties as people start to get fed up with the whole process? >> i don't think we necessarily know. i don't see a particular reason to believe that off the top, but i wouldn't -- i wouldn't put myself in the position of predicting the future trajectory of poll numbers. one thing i do think is true, though, and this is an important piece of this too. whatever the polls say, the republicans really did shut down the government here. they have not wanted to be in a conference committee working on budget issues with democrats for six months. they demanded a negotiation in which the only thing they're willing to give up is not shutting down the government. they did not get any policy concessions in return for policy concessions. republicans ended up shutting down the government. so there's actually a reality of where the blame lies here too. >> msnbc policy analyst ezra klein, thanks so much. now we'd like to go back to
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congressman from new york charles rangel. congressman, good morning. >> i hope you hear me now. >> there we go. i wanted to ask you about fund-raising. that's what i started to talk to you earlier. while this showdown has been going on, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been raising money on this issue of the shutdown. but meanwhile starting today now people are going without pay and all of these government agencies. do you think that it's a little insensitive politically to be raising money on this and courting donors while real people are going to start feeling the pain of this shutdown? >> of course not. as a matter of fact, the popularity of the congress is so low, it takes a little hutzpah to go out and ask people for money. the only group that i see that has a cult approach to all of this are those people that have been led by senator cruz that really think this is a crusade. and they think they have won. they are against government. and so whether it's social
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security, medicare or the affordable care act, they're involved in a crusade. and so they're raising money. but for those of us that have gone through a recession and we still are in it, going through sequestration, where middle class people are sliding into poverty and now we find that the government is going to be laying off hard-working federal employees, i cannot see who would have the nerve to go out there and say we need your money. for what? it's embarrassing. >> now, the gop says that they have already compromised in some ways by going from seeking to completely defund obama care to just asking for a delay, which they say is just to work out the kinks and make sure it comes out smoothly. both harry reid and the president have said that they will not compromise on this issue at all. why not negotiate at all on, say, something like the medical devices tax, try to find some way to meet in the middle?
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>> we have so much that we will have to do in the days and weeks and years ahead to refine obama care or the affordable care act. we had that problem with medicare, we had that problem with social security, but you really don't go into a conference. what you do is you go into a committee. you call witnesses, you find out what is good, what is bad. you legislate. you pass it in the house, you pass it in the senate. the president signs or vetoes it. and then the supreme court, if someone challenges, does that. they are fighting all of the things that the constitution provides because they are against big government as though this was the worst thing that could have happened. true, if there is a national disaster, they want government. if they were sick, they expect -- if they have a flood or something government would be there. they love social security. they love medicare. but at the same time they hate government. it is a cult that they have.
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and what makes this so difficult is the silence of the american people. business knows that if they continue to do things like this, it's not going to help our recovery. the church knows, the pope has said that it's only the vulnerable that's suffering in our country because of the disparity between the poor and the rich. once they make up their mind that they're fed up with this, and i might add find the name of the congressperson where they live, that will help, then the congress is going to respond to the pressure. >> all right. new york democrat congressman charlie rangel, thanks for your time this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> we want to know how the shutdown is affecting you, so tell us by tweeting at the hash don'tshutusdown. so what happened when i tried to sign up for one of the new health care exchanges this morning? i'll show you my personal play-by-play and two key experts will weigh in with their advice. and how much confusion is really out there about what
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these new exchanges are and how they work? we hit the streets to find out. e is the better choice for her, she's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with her all day to see how it goes. [ claira ] after the deliveries, i was okay. now the ciabatta is done and the pain is starting again. more pills? seriously? seriously. [ groans ] all these stops to take more pills can be a pain. can i get my aleve back? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. for my pain, i want my aleve. i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust.
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now that the obama care insurance exchanges are live, the process of choosing what's right for you might seem a little overwhelming. with millions of people possibly logging on, it could take longer to get where you want to go. maryland's marketplace announced a four-hour delay right after it opened. i wanted to know what the process was like, so this morning i tested it out at healthcare.gov and here's what happened. this is the beginning of the log-in process. i'm creating an account and it's pretty much like any other website. it's asking for name, e-mail address, user id, step one of three so i'm assuming i'll start to input more information.
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so i was sent an activation link to my personal e-mail account. i clicked on it and now i'm going to proceed with setting up my account. now that i have an account, it's asking me about myself. so this is step two, filling out personal information about me and my family before i get to the final step of choosing a plan. i keep getting this error page. it won't let me progress past identifying -- it won't let me progress past verifying personal information so i'm going to call the help number and see what they have to say. so we're about 30 minutes into the process. i've been able to set up my account. i was in the process of verifying my identity and i hit a roadblock on the website. i kept getting an error mess annual. so i tried to initiate an online chat. that didn't go anywhere. now i'm on hold. it's my second time calling and we're eight minutes into this call. there was a previous call that lasted about three minutes. so all in all it's been about
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ten minutes where i'm waiting to speak to a person. right now it's just repeating the same recorded message over and over again telling me to hold on. so we'll see where it goes. so this is a state-by-state process. our executive producer tried to do it for a different state, new jersey, and this is the screen that she got, that the system is down. so it just started ringing again, but i haven't reached a person yet. we're 15 minutes in. i'm back to the recorded message. so it's 15 minutes into this call now. this is the second call so i've probably spent 20 minutes on the phone now. we started about 35 minutes ago. so at this point i'm going to hang up and call it a day. if i were signing up for myself, this is where my patience would be exhausted. the white house says it does fully expect some glitches as the exchanges roll out. last night president obama told npr that he knew there would be problems. >> there will be a six-month
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enrollment period. in the first week, first month, first three months, i would suspect that there will be glitches. this is 50 states, a lot of people signing up for something. and there are going to be problems. >> and in response to the website problems that we've seen, we did get a response from a senior administration official saying we are aware of the issue and are working to address it as soon as possible. now, for more on all of this is dr. ezekial emanuel, former special adviser for health policy to the white house and jay engoff who helped set up the exchanges at the health and human services department. thank you for being here this morning. >> thank you. >> it's our pleasure. >> thanks. there's still a lot of confusion over what obama care really is. the "washington post" jonathan capehart talked to some people in north carolina about what necessi they knew about the law. here's what they had to say. >> i don't really understand what's going to happen with the
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affordable care act or obama care. i don't know what will really change. it seems like it's very complex legislation. but i think we should try it. >> there's still a lot of people that don't know what it's about. you know, if they can qualify for it. >> my taxes went up $4,000 to fund obama care. >> so, dr. ezekial, what's the bottom line here? what to people need to know? >> first of all, his taxes did not go up $4,000 to fund obama care. that's just flat-out wrong. but i would say that there is a lot of confusion, but people don't have to understand the law to understand what's good about it. most people don't have any idea about the complexities of the medicare law to understand how they can use it and get the medical services. i think the same thing is true. actually most people think these exchanges are going to work really well. if you want to see one that works well, you go to massachusetts and the massachusetts connector. you put in some information. you can shop in about 20 or 30 minutes. i think we're going to get to
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that point on the federal -- on the exchange that the federal government is running and state exchanges over the next two months and then it's going to be relatively easy. you'll see a bunch of choices, you'll find out whether your doctor is in the network, whether the hospital you want is in the network and you'll see the price point and you'll decide whether that price point is one you want. you want lower deductibles, you go to a higher price point. and i think that is a system people do understand. they understand it from shopping on the web for a variety of issues and this will become relatively easy for people. i think as your experience shows, right now in the opening days with lots of people crashing, trying to find out what it's like, we'll probably have more glitches than we will in a week or two. and i think every day it's going to get better as technical teams can improve things and improve the experience. i like to say the important thing is a couple of years out. there's going to be a lot of confusion initially, but in a couple of years, that's all
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going to be away. the experience is going to be relatively easy. people are going to know what those varies tiers, the bronze, the silver, the gold mean. so i guess less nervous by everyone sort of looking at the tea pot and saying it's not boiling yet and there's all these problems. let's have a little patience. this is the american health care system is the fifth largest economy in the world. >> yeah. and jay, some states are refusing now to set up their own exchanges. missouri's lieutenant governor recently said that he hoped there would be active resistance to the law. so how does that affect people living in those states? >> well, it really is wildly irresponsible for some governors, some elected officials. they're not only hoping the law fails, they're not only rooting for the law to fail, but they're actually affirmatively trying to sabotage the law. you mentioned in missouri, it's not the governor, it's some people in the legislature, but there are other governors, and one thing they have done is the affordable care act sets up these entities called
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navigators, which are supposed to help people enroll in insurance, explain to people the differences among health plans, and in some states they have passed laws that prevent navigators from doing this. so they have passed laws that the state is preventing the navigators from doing what the federal law requires them to do. >> so if someone lives in that state, though, will it prevent them from being able to enroll or will all of the technical process be handled by the federal government in which case they still will get whatever anyone else can get? >> no, they can still go to healthcare.gov. they can enroll but will not get the help that the affordable care act intended them to get. let me point out also, this is a state-by-state process. i know in the lead-up to this broadcast you talked about the maryland program. i'd be annoyed with what's going on in maryland too. but let me give you another example. california, there's a young lawyer in our office just passed
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the california bar. he she just went to the california site and got quotes for all levels of coverage. for the coverage that pays for 60% of the average person's costs, there's several plans that charge about $200. for the next level up, several plans $250. the next level up, several plans $300. and for the most generous coverage, the coverage that pays about 90%, she got several quotes for $350. so the system is almost working very well in kachbd i think tca. and i think over the next several weeks it will work well in all other states. >> that's a fair point. we should know where i had problems this morning was with new york's site. as you mentioned, people in other states may be having no problem at all. thank you both for being here this morning. >> thank you. well, coming up, we'll take you around the country to see how the rollout of obama care is working in three key states. first, 200 million a day,
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that's what the shutdown could end up costing the d.c. area, and that's not even counting all the tourist destinations sure to take a hit. plus a new update on the all-important panda cam. it was up and running, but what about now? ♪ don't you ♪ don't you wanna, wanna ♪ don't you ♪ don't you want to see me flaunt what i got? ♪
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coming up, we head back to capitol hill. how will congress get out of this mess? our agenda panel joins me just ahead. plus, is obama care the right rx for america? we're heading all over the country to find out. before th, one more time, just for themselves. before the last grandchild. before the first grandchild. smile. before katie, debbie, kevin and brad... there was a connection that started it all
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♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] build anything with the new toyota tundra. toyota. let's go places. google is celebrating the 123rd anniversary of yosemite national park on its home page today, but there won't be any actual celebrating at the park. all national parks and monuments are closed because of the
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government shutdown. yosemite, the grand canyon, the statue of liberty and our national monuments will all turn visitors away today. joining me now for a closer look is nbc news correspondent peter alexander. peter, good morning. 700,000 workers in d.c. alone will be furloughed by this, but the impact goes far beyond federal workers, right? >> reporter: yeah, it's certainly having an impact on those people who came to this area to enjoy themselves. the national zoo being affected. the panda cam is shut down. >> say it ain't so. >> reporter: federal workers for the smithsonians and for the zoo have all been furloughed as a result of this. we're outside the national aerospace museum. the sign says due to the shutdown, we are shut down. we apologize for the inconvenience. some of the people that have been inconvenienced, some friends that we've just made. we have everett love, dennis polly. dennis, you said cns was the most excitement you've had today. >> traserrible, terrible day.
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i feel sorry for the foreigners that just come all this way. >> reporter: just met some folks from brazil that were frustrated. everett, you said when you get back to minneapolis, you're looking for a ballot box. what do you think? >> well, it's a lose-lose for the city of washington and the country. eventually they'll wind up paying these guys for their last time. >> reporter: nice to meet both of you guys. mara, they are doing some things in the d.c. area to help those people affected. there's free pilates with a government i.d., free burgers at some places and even a free cupcake if you were a federal worker and furloughed today. >> that's a shame for those people who traveled to see our monuments. peter, thanks so much. another popular attraction shut off, as peter just reported, the panda cam. it was up for some time this morning, but then to our dismay, it was shut off. a live look on capitol hill right now where members of the house and senate have been playing the blame game over the government shutdown. president obama is due to
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address the nation about the shutdown and the launch of obama care in just about an hour. just a short time ago, the president released a message to government employees saying in part, quote, i will continue to do everything in my power to get the house of representatives to allow our government to reopen as quickly as possible and make sure you receive the pay that you have earned. it's time now to talk all things shutdown. i'd like to bring in today's agenda panel. sara clip is a health policy reporter for the "washington post." victoria soto is a professor at the university of texas and msnbc latino contributor. good morning to you all. >> good morning. >> let's take a quick listen to what house speaker john boehner had to say back in 2011 about a government shutdown. >> republicans have no interest in shutting down the government. shutting down the government i think is irresponsible and i think it will end up costing the
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american taxpayers more money than we're already spending. >> sahil, it's been clear all along the way boehner has not wanted this, so how did we get here? >> well, so what the speaker -- what speaker boehner really should have said is i don't want a government shutdown, my leadership team but my members very clearly do. he obviously can't say that and that's the reason we're here because he has a very large, very vocal, well supported among the grassroots base faction of republicans in his conference that are eager to force a confrontation with democrats and president obama in any way they can to try to destroy, dismantle, derail his health care law. they see these fiscal deadlines. they need to keep the federal government open and what's coming up next is the debt limit as their only real leverage to get these concessions. republicans control only the house, they don't control the senate or the white house, but yet they have these huge, very lofty goals that their base is
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demanding they achieve. they believe they were sent to washington to seek after. so they're employing these sort of radical, seldom-used tactics to extract unilateral concessions from democrats. democrats believe if they give something now, republicans will come back in the next cr and debt limit fight and ask for more so they want to put an end to what they see as hostage taking. >> last night senator john mccain weighed in saying he's worried republicans will take the fall for the shutdown. >> what's particularly disappointing is that obama care is going to have a lot of problems in its rollout. the president's polling numbers are falling in every category. and yet the story is, to the american people, that republicans are fighting republicans. that's not helpful. >> victoria, the public largely blamed congressional republicans for the '96 shutdown but they didn't pay a very big price in terms of seats in the following
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election. how do you think this will play out in 2014? >> well, mara, we can't forget that we had the redistricting that took place in 2010. so in 2010 we had this whole new crop of republicans come in, especially the tea party republicans, and then they went to drawing the maps in the state legislatures so they insulated a lot of these people that we think of as the extreme right, the very conservative folks who are, quote unquote, holding the process hostage. but come 2014, they're going to be safe. i think the real people at risk here are those republicans in slightly more moderate districts. they're the ones who are going to have their feet held to the fire. quite frankly, they're the ones who don't want the government shut down. so when we're talking about the republican party pushing for the shutdown, we need to qualify that because it's only a select group. it's only those very conservative tea party members that do. other folks, as john mccain just mentioned, they don't want to do this. >> and i should mention we are just getting some new details on the president's remarks that will take place later this afternoon.
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there will be no audience there. he will not be taking questions. we are expecting -- now all of this, of course, this fight over the budget is taking place because of a fight over obama care. sara, how unusual is it for a party to effectively try to repeal a law totally outside of the legislative process after it's been affirmed boy an election and the supreme court. have we seen anything like this before? >> it is pretty unprecedented. i will add when medicare and medicaid were created in the 1960s there definitely was some pushback, you saw some efforts to repeal them and even in some states not setting up for medicaid, it wasn't as widespread as this, though. we didn't have a government shutdown and we didn't have a supreme court decision and an election that affirmed this law as a law so we're pretty much in uncharted territory here. >> sahil, the '96 shutdown was
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actually over spending priorities, but in this case we've seen all kinds of unrelated policy proposals tied to the budget. will this be a new way of doing business in washington, using any fight as a way to ram your agenda through? >> that's certainly what conservatives in the house through. but i think the sleeper story of this fight is something you just hit on, which is that the spending battle is what this is ultimately about. a continuing resolution is about how much the government should spend when the deadline expires. democrats have already ceded temporarily to sequestration levels, to lower levels, you know, forced by the automatic cuts that were established in 2011. indiscriminate cuts. it cuts all sorts of things in thoughtless ways. democrats have accepted them for now because they don't want to shut down the government over it and want to continue to negotiate over the budget. republicans have side stepped that. it's as if they don't recognize
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that they're winning a major policy concession from democrats and starting with a stronger negotiating hand next time. so you're right that the government shutdown of 1995 and '96 were over spending. this time democrats are not fighting this over spending and are simply trying to tell republicans, tell the faction of conservatives in the party that they cannot use these fiscal deadlines as leverage and sort of try to extort democrats into doing things they don't want to do. >> our agenda panel today, sarah kliff, sa hihil and victoria, tk you and we will be right back. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day
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and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. wout of landfills each year? plastic waste to cover mt. rainier by using one less trash bag each month, we can. and glad forceflex bags stretch until they're full.* so you can take them out less often.
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i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more sinus symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. oh what a relief it is. the president's signature legislative achievement went live at 12:01 eastern time this morning. if the law accomplishes what it's designed to do, tens of millions of americans will be able to afford quality health coverage. about 45 million americans
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currently live without coverage. but with the health insurance exchanges now open for business, many are shopping for a health plan today in the midst of a government shutdown. the president addressed the situation on monday. >> tens of thousands of americans die every single year because they don't have access to affordable health care. despite this, republicans have said that if we lock these americans out of affordable health care for one more year, if we sacrifice the health care of millions of americans, then they'll fund the government for a couple of more months. >> so how does the law impact you? well, it depends on where you live. we're getting the lay of the land with our team of reporters in several key states. nbc's mark potter is in miami, florida, charles hadlock is in texas and leanne gregg is in denver, colorado. mark, i'd like to start with you. mark is at a miami medical center. despite the fact nearly 25% of
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floridians are uninsured, rick scott has been one of the most obstructionist governors when it comes to implementing obama care. what's the reaction there where you are to the new health care law? >> reporter: well, we're at the brinken medical center in miami which serves about 17,000 low income patients a year, two-thirds of them are uninsured. so their response here is to set up this room where they're educating people, teaching them about insurance and signing them up. there have been some computer glitches today, not everything has worked, but the ceo is very happy this day has come. >> i've been in this business for over 40 years in the community health center. and today is the day. and this is a day of a new beginning, a new change in how we deliver health care or provide health care to those who are in need. i'm very excited about it. and it's been way too long coming. >> reporter: now, an issue with the program here in florida is that about a million extremely poor patients who had hoped for an extension of medicaid so they
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could be covered will not be getting it because the state of florida decided not to take $50 billion from the federal government to do that. so many of those people will likely remain uninsured. let's go to charles hadlock in texas. charlie? >> reporter: thanks, mark. well, texas is one of a handful of states that does not have a health care exchange because of republican opposition. so the federal government has stepped in to give money to groups like the lone star circle of care here in georgetown, texas, just outside austin to help people sign up in person. one of those people that came in today was kimberly, a health care provider for seniors. and she does not have health care insurance herself. so she came here to shop. but they ran into a computer problem here because, well, there's just so many people trying to get through that the computer system crashed. despite that, she is thankful that health care is now within reach. >> i've always had this fear in the back of my head, i can't be in a car accident, i can't --
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you know, i've got to be careful when i go climbing in the mountains and things like that. i don't want to take any extra, unnecessary risks. >> reporter: they are having computer problems here, but they say that as time goes by, those will be worked out. let's hoping it's going a little bit smoother in colorado. that's where leanne gregg is now. >> reporter: hi, charles. this is one of eight community clinics operated by denver health, the largest provider of health care for the uninsured in denver. under the new law, two key elements, expanded medicaid and the state-operated exchange where 18 different insurance companies will offer more than 500 different plans. the governor and the legislature supported the new law. this is where barack obama accepted the nomination for presidency back in 2008 under part of his platform to reform the nation's health care system. but more than 50% of the people in this state don't approve of the law. many of those already have insurance or they're seniors who don't think they will benefit. they're concerned about having to stand in lines.
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they're also concerned about quality of care. state insurance guides will help clarify what the system means for the two-thirds of the people in the state who really don't understand what it's all about. the goal, of course, to get everyone insured eventually. mara, back to you. >> my thanks to you all. a quick reminder, the president will be addressing the nation from the rose garden at the white house at 12:25 p.m. eastern time to talk about the health care law and the government shutdown. we, of course, will bring those remarks to you live. my customers can shop around. but it doesn't usually work that way with health care. with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and cost estimates, so we can make better health decisions. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.
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this morning, calling on the democrats who run the senate to sit down with the house and negotiate and come to a reasonable solution that cancels the shutdown and pass it, because no one wants a shutdown, it seems, but our friends on the other side of the aisle. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell this morning.
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nearly 12 hours into the shutdown we're keeping a close eye how big a hit the markets will take. the overseas markets shrug it off. investors are watching how it plays out as it is sure to be a prelude leading up to the debt ceiling. deadline just two weeks from now. joining me for more is jared bernstein, msnbc contributor, senior fellow on the center for budget and policy preerand form chief adviser. thanks for being here this morning. >> my pleasure. >> government spending represents 40% of gdp. depending how long this continues, how much of a hit should we expect the market to take? >> to be clear. that's probably government at all levels. federal spending is closer to 20. this is going to be a hit on the markets largely as a function of the debt ceiling as you mentioned. the shutdown doesn't help by any stretch of the imagination. the underlying economy is still too fragile.
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we have an unemployment rate. remember that? that's out there somewhere. that's about 7%. you're furloughing 800,000 workers without pay. now, in the past that pay has been retroactive but we don't know that yet. i think vis-a-vis the broader economy, even global economy, the question is does the shutdown make a default on our public debt less likely or more likely. there's two sides to the story. we can get into it if we like. that's the big economic question now. >> jared, during the 21-day shutdown from mid december 1995 to early january 1996, stocks lost about 4% of their value. after president clinton and congress reached an agreement stocks shot up more than 10% in the following month. does that mean there won't be any long-term damage here, or is that difficult to predict? >> i think if the government shutdown is short, then there probably won't be any long-term damage to the underlying
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markets. a good example is yesterday with the prospect of shutdown beginning to look more and more real, we saw the markets off considerably. today as you said it's a bit of a shrug because they priced that in yesterday. however, if this drags on, the economic impacts will begin to show. some of the agencies have carryover funds unobligated balances. they can keep going a few weeks. after that, then you'll see more of a pinch on the economy. and if the markets begin to believe that the opposition in congress will actually breach the debt ceiling then we have a very serious problem. >> jared bernstein, thanks so much for that perspective. >> you're welcome. >> that wraps things up with me. "now" with alex wagner coming up next. aces. but after one day's use, dishcloths can redeposit millions of germs. so ditch your dishcloth and switch to a fresh sheet of bounty duratowel. look! a fresh sheet of bounty duratowel leaves this surface cleaner than a germy dishcloth, as this black light reveals. it's durable, cloth-like
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last night at 12:01 a.m., the inevitable finally became a reality. surprising no one the federal government shutdown at midnight in what can only be seen as a fitting end to two and a half years of republican obstruction and escalating hostility to president obama's health care law and his agenda on whole. as lawmakers went home absent a deal, tempers flared. >> we don't have a right to repeal obama care. call it what you want, it's the law of the land. our founders would be ashamed of what this congress has become. we're dysfunctional. we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. >> the stubborn refusal to work across the aisle is the reason why americans today are so frustrated by what they see in washington. >> over 800,000 federal workers are now furloughed. national parks and monuments are closed and most federal agencies are grinding to a halt until lawmakers can break the

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